Statement of Lucas Anker, regarding his teacher’s suicide.
This statement, labeled Anker 2 of 4, was originally given on the 3rd of March, 2023 Statement recorded by Archival Assistant Ritchie Diablos
Statement Begins
I can't believe I came back here.
When I came here two years ago, I told myself.. that was it. I’d never have a reason to come back here.
Nothing spooky would happen again. I avoided the ocean, and.. besides the texts from my ex, I would avoid anything.. dangerous.
…
In my defense. I wasn’t the one who met him. Its not my fault he came into my life.
….
I’ll be honest. I… barely knew my psych teacher, Mr. Smithe. Like.
He was fine. He was a decent teacher. But I wouldn't seek out his company or anything
But the point is, he didn’t commit suicide.
I know what the police report said.
I know they found a note.
I fucking saw his body. Saw the noose, I saw it.
Everyone in my class did
…
…
I know I sound self centered, but I genuinely didn’t notice Mario for most of the term
We take a class together. Or classes actually. Same college, couple classes together.
And he’s not exactly… subtle.
But I genuinely didn't notice him until David started talking about him.
I have no idea how they met. For all of David’s constant yammering, he hasn’t mentioned that.
And even after David started talking about “your classmate Mario”, I had no idea which of my classmates it was. He was so fucking vague about it. Not intentionally David’s just.. not the brightest sometimes. And loves being annoying more than most things.
“The funny one”
“The one with fluffy hair”
“The smartass!”
That’s all he could tell me when I asked which classmate he meant.
He could have just said the guy with probably thousands of dollars of spiderweb tattoos all over his arms and neck.
I officially met Mario when I got home late one day, and I found David eating a muffin.
Which I nearly screamed at.
You don’t get how weird that was.
I’ve known David since we were 7 years old.
In that entire time, he’s had sweets or baked goods exactly 3 times since. And all three times, he was practically forced to.
David takes almost obsessive care of his body. He’s 7 feet tall and maintains an insane exercise routine. I tried to follow it with him once and I swear I was almost hospitalized. And he’s really strict with his food intake for that same reason.
So, when I got home and found David voluntarily eating something sweet, I thought he was possessed.
Then I saw Mario sitting by him, with a bag of muffins.
And…
Honestly, I thought he looked creepy.
The tattoos and punk aesthetic were one thing, but his eyes were something else.
I can’t explain it.
But there was just something hollow about them. Still is, really. Like he’s not really looking through them.
There’s almost a.. crack, in one of them.
And the way he moved was a bit.. weird, every now and then. Like he was being moved by something that wasn’t him. He limped a bit, as well.
David wasn’t possessed. But I’ll admit, it took me a while to realize he just. Had a crush on Mario.
In my defense, half their conversations sound like arguments to me, and I was under the impression that David was fully aromantic, but turns out he had an exception. Or maybe he just never met anyone who was his type before. I don't know. He hates labels.
Mario started sitting near me in class after that
Which. That wasn't weird. We knew each other now, so yeah, we spent more time together.
So I noticed a lot about him. Like. He always seemed to have yarn on him? And he didn’t take any notes in class. Ever.
Instead he’d just
Put his yarn on the desk, usually in a way that it wasn’t close to anyone else.
And started knitting. But… he didn’t use needles.
I didn't know people could knit with their fingers but apparently it's.. a common way to teach kids motor skills.
… there’s nothing wrong with memorizing stuff differently but I’ll be honest, I sorta looked down on him for it? Like. I thought he was just. Lazing around in class. And his knitting freaked me out…
I found his knitting weird mostly because
Well whenever I’d see his fingers working with the white yarn out of the corner of my eye, I'd… always have a second, where I thought it was a cobweb.
The fact he almost uniquely used white yarn didn’t help.
But he clearly was listening in class.
Sometimes he reacted.. weirdly to some stuff the teacher said.
Like…
A week before … It happened.
.. we were talking about the concept of free will.
And… I kept hearing him snickering. Which… I’d never heard him laugh like that before.
It sounded mocking.
When I looked at him, I…
I swear he was tugging on one of his tattoos.
Not like. Pulling at the skin.
No, it was like.. he was pulling at the webs themselves. And they were moving.
He caught me staring, and smiled… like we were sharing a joke
The teacher said something about how we are different from animals, because we have free will, the ability to make choices
And Mario actually laughed at that. Quietly and no one else heard him.
Or. I thought no one else did… But Mr, Smithe’s head snapped up at us, and... I swear, he looked at Mario with a mixture of intense fear and pure hatred...
When class ended, I...
I asked him what the hell he found so funny all class.
And what his deal with professor Smithe was.
And he just.
….
Looked at me
With his weird eyes. That weird crack in his eye looking too much like a spiderweb.
And his head tilted.
And laughed.
And I swear, one of the webs on his arms had a spider. It did not have a spider before. It didn’t have a spider at the start of class. It doesn’t have a spider now.
Our teacher hung himself in the classroom.
Its fucked up, and tragic, of course.
And it was fucking terrifying walking into class and seeing that.
… but you know.
Mario left campus really late the day before.
I know because he called David to pick him up at like midnight.
And…
The rope he used to hang himself.
I don't know what the official police report said. I don't know if they actually scanned it, or anything.
But it looked like a fucking cobweb.
Statement ends
Like Mr Anker's previous statement, this one is odd
We did confirm what we could
Mr Anthony Smithe did indeed hang himself in his own lecture hall, but the police report Brandie found doesn’t mention anything about the kind of rope he used.
But beyond that…. Honestly there’s not much we can look into.
The classmate Mr. Anker refers to is suspicious, yes, and I personally agree with his suspicions about this spider obsessed man.
Especially… because, Jakey did his Weirdo stalking thing, and found out where Mr. Smithe lived, prior to his suicide.
Two interesting things came from that discovery. The first being, we have a statement from someone else in that very building, somewhere around here.
The second one, being the apartment building has had a few more suicides… and, he found a picture of the owner of the entire building.
And…. It’s just a headshot. But I can't help but notice a part of a spiderweb tattoo on his neck.
But we can’t exactly do anything with no proof.
I was really surprised when I found this statement had nothing to do with. Drowning, or oceans, or even the sky, and falling.
Given Lucas Anker’s previous statement.. I thought these four statements would be him descending into madness as he repeatedly got lost at sea, but
…
Whatever
It's a baseless theory.
Though. I showed this statement to the boss lady. She read it, and mumbled something about “that damned brat”. I have no idea if she means Mr. Anker, or the spider guy, or hell, maybe the dumbass roommate!
I did it, I finished up my redesign of David, unlike Lucas he doesn't have a warm vs cold weather outfit he gets his standard outfit and his gardening outfit.
I'm just gonna ramble a little about the design elements I used for David.
Okay so body wise I wanted David to look sharper than Lucas does, I especially tried to do so with his very long pointy ears. Now I also tried to make it look like his extremities had frostbite, as well as giving a blue tint to his skin. I also gave him beauty marks/moles.
For the jewelry, I replaced his necklace, I didn't want it to be a cross, but I did like the blue gem in it so I made it more of a diamond shape. Then there is a ring I added onto the chain of his necklace, I intend this to be his mother's signant ring (which I want him to have it's not in the canon series), I want it to have a lily on it.
For his main outfit, I had made previous redesigns where I would switch the colors on the coat, and I do like the white being the fluffy portion, because then it kinda looks like snow. I also tried to make it look like there was snow along the bottom of his coat (pretend they are sparkles of light and snowflakes, I didn't want to draw out snowflakes that small), that was inspired by the snowflakes on his S4 shirt. I also have removed the cuts in his sleeves because that would not make sense for a winter coat which his coat is intended to be.
For his gardening outfit, I decided to base this one more on his season 4 outfit, at least I gave him the shirt for it. I gave him gardening gloves and apron, I might change the dark blue on them later cause I'm not sure I like how the colors turned out on them. I also gave him jeans that are higher up, since they would be more practical to work in. I also doubled up his necklace, so it would be as in the way, when he is working in the garden.
I’m thinking about Robin Hood AU!Luca hating David when he first joins Divinus because he reminds Luca of everything he hated about guilds growing up. To him, they were all a bunch of cocky assholes who would rather laugh in his face than help him and Lara out, and David seems like much of the same.
It’s only when Luca sees him being Ech’s dad and gives him some pointers that he sees through his frosty exterior and starts really bonding with him. I think that’s one of the first moments that he starts breaking his own perceptions of what a guild is, because David being a caring parent circumvents the very basis of what he assumes guildmembers to be.
